The present invention relates to a connector for interconnecting two kinds of pin contactors, for example, terminal pins of an IC and pin conductors attached to a printed board.
As a kind of IC socket for detachably mounting an IC on a printed board, there has been proposed a connector of the type that after each terminal pin of the IC is inserted in its axial direction, a sliding member is slid in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the terminal pin, urging the terminal pin into contact with a socket contactor with a predetermined contact pressure. FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B show examples of such types of connectors heretofore employed.
In FIGS. 1A and 1B, a cantilever type socket contactor 2 planted on a base insulator 1 is inserted into a contact chamber 4 formed in a cover insulator 3 and a terminal pin 9 of an IC 8 is inserted into the contact chamber 4 through a pin insertion hole 5 made in the cover insulator 3. Then, the cover insulator 3 is slid to the right relative to the base insulator 1 in FIG. 1A so that the terminal pin 9 is urged by the inner side wall of the contact chamber 4 against the socket contactor 2, bending it as depicted in FIG. 1B. Thus, the terminal pin 9 is pressed into contact with the socket contactor 2 with a predetermined contact pressure.
In FIGS. 2A and 2B, a socket contactor 6, which comprises a pair of opposed spring pieces 6a and 6b of different lengths, is planted on the base insulator 1 with the spring pieces 6a and 6b disposed in a contact chamber 7 formed in the base insulator 1. The shorter spring piece 6a has its tip engaged with a groove 7a cut in the ceiling of the contact chamber 7 and the longer spring piece 6b has its tip engaged with a groove 3b cut in the underside of the cover insulator 3. The cover insulator 3 is slid to the right relative to the base insulator 1 in FIG. 2B so that the spring pieces 6a and 6b are pulled apart as shown in FIG. 2A, and the terminal pin 9 of the IC 8 is inserted between the spring pieces 6a and 6b in the contact chamber 7 of the base insulator 1 through the pin insertion hole 5 of the cover insulator 3. Then, the cover insulator 3 is returned to its initial position, where the terminal pin 9 held between the spring pieces 6a and 6b is in contact with the socket contactor 6 with a predetermined contact pressure.
In operability and mechanical strength, however, the conventional connectors shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are not suitable for use with a PGA (Pin Grid Array) type LSI having hundreds of pins, because they need a driving force equal in magnitude to the total amount of contact pressures for individual terminal pins 9 for sliding the cover insulator 3 to bring the terminal pins 9 into contact with the socket contactors 2 and for sliding the cover insulator 3 to pull the spring pieces 6a and 6b apart, respectively. In addition, either of the conventional connectors is troublesome in assembling because it involves fixing the socket contactor 2 or 6 to the base insulator 1, and consequently, it is not suitable for use with an element having a large number of terminals with a high density.